VB/PB livery rebranding starts.

[Ryan K]

I flew on an Air Canada E190 to Cuba last year and they also had personal seat-back screens on their E190's. Couldn't Virgin Australia do the same?

[Ash W]

Of course they could! They could also fill the a/c with business class seats and a squillion other things. Doesn't mean they should though.

[Zac M]

Is ZPM off for re-config as well?
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/VHZPM

[JamesL]

As previously posted, heavy maintenance...

[Andrew Coggan]

VH-YIE is the latest with a red nose cone.

[Paul f.]

Originally Posted by Andrew Coggan

VH-YIE is the latest with a red nose cone.

At the rate they are going all the new livery aircraft will have a red nose

[Radi K]

The new Virgin callsign for all company aircraft is now VELOCITY. This applies to all B777 and VANZ flights as well. VOZ/DJ-VA/"Velocity".

Look out for VELOCITY 1 bound for LAX this afternoon !

[James Smith]

It was interesting how this unfolded for someone who didn't know beforehand that the Virgin call signs were changing. I turned on my scanner late morning and immediately heard a Velocity XXX callsign. It caught my attention as something different and I kept tracking it and then heard another one. The penny dropped when a Velocity XXX Alpa came on frequency and I realised that with the start of the NW that Virgin must have changed their call sign. Mr Borghetti's change management has certainly reached all parts of the company!

Kept listening and can confirm that VOz 1 used the Velocity call sign. There were a few comments particularly when the Virgin call sign was used by both pilots and controllers in error but most seem to adapt pretty well. It will take some time for old habits to change.

Does anyone know the story of why the change and why Virgin choose the name of their frequest flyers program for their call sign? It looks as though Virgin 200/201 will be the only flights with the Virgin call sign from now on.

[Zac M]

I think the idea was to standardize across the three distinct parts of VA (PB, V Aus and Virgin Aus) without doubling up on 'Virgin' so that the callsign can be used around the world without confusion, ie. Virgin Atlantic.

[Rob R]

Virgin Australia is not allowed to use "Virgin" on international routes and within Australia the use of "Virgin" was never officially approved. With the rebranding the use of one call sign for all was adopted hence Velocity.